Eclipse TD510zmk2/B&W PV1 combo

[alastr]

Just wonder, has anyone succeeded in integrating Eclipse TD510zmk2 with the B&W PV1 (or PV1D) sub. If so, what was the sub's crossover frequency given Eclipses' tricky -10dB listing?

 

[Big Chris]

I'm sure one of the fairly recent 'Temptation' articles had some Eclipse TDs (Not sure which ones though), and they talked about their findings when using a PV1-D.

I think the conclusion was greater scale and dynamics but the trade off was cohesion.

With regards levels and cut-off frequencies, I think it's just a case of sitting down and deciding for yourself. I tweak mine occasionally, and in fact I'm just about to dial the crossover down on my PV1 to about 65/70 hz as I think it's too intrusive at present (had a tweak a week or so back and set it at 80hz). Volume is at around 2 O'Clock. Works for me

 

[alastr]

Thanks. Also had no problems integrating it with the B&Ws (685s in my case), but the Eclipses are much trickier. Which was the conclusion of the Temptations bit you are referring to...

 

[DocG]

The exact comment, in the August 2012 issue, was:

The 510s' low-frequency limitations made us wonder if we could improve things with a sub. B&W's £1200 PV1D seemed ideal given the Eclipse's supernatural speed.

After plenty of tweaking the Eclipse/B&W combo gave a nicely balanced performance. There were notable gains in scale and even an improvement in stereo sound-staging.

Losses? They never gelled totally seamlessly, though it was close and barely worse than the integration achieved by most multi-driver alternatives. As a halfway solution it's well worth considering if you like what the Eclipses do.

So it looks like it'll all depend on your tweaking skills! And no, they don't give the cut off they used...

 

[alastr]

Yep, still wonder what they meant by the 'halfway solution' compared to what?

 

[DocG]

I guess they mean: halfway between bass extension and phase cohesion, a compromise.

 

[alastr]

I'm not sure this is what THEY mean, but YOUR comment makes a lot of sense - there seem to be phase issues indeed (especially if, given rather high roll-off frequency (in B&W's -6dB terms), you place the sub in the middle. Maybe, it will work better with two subs...)

 

[alastr]

Thought, would update this just in case.

Upgraded to PV1D from PV1. The new sub is more configurable and in the end integrates much better with the Eclipses in my room. The best integration I got was by setting the Speaker papameters to B&W's own 686 (quite close to the 512s in their characteristics) and then tweaking the sub's physical position a bit. Like it so far.